I really enjoy walking in the parks around Adelaide: there is always something nice to discover! A couple of days ago as I was walking in the North Adelaide Nantu Wama park, I suddenly noticed a hut made of wood. I could not resist getting closer and visit this secret little place! I am always fascinated by children imagination and creativity. It was nicely built and there was a whole little world inside: a door, a window, a bench and even a pot with “food”!
The magic cauldron
I must say it was a pleasant surprise and it reminded me of this artist I am crazy about at the moment. Her name is Johanna Basford and she became in a short time very popular with her colouring books for adults! You have probably heard about “Secret Garden” or “Enchanted Forest”… or maybe not?! Well they have been sold out in NO time and it is very difficult to find them in stores especially abroad (the artist is based in UK).
Johanna Basford’s hut from “Secret Garden”
I must confess I have never heard about this artist when I was living in London! Actually I had to come here to Australia to discover her amazing work! One day, my Spanish teacher, Ana (from Colombia) offered me a postcard with a beautiful garden scene drawn by Johanna Basford and I really felt in love with the design! I like the poesy she puts in her drawings and all the tiny details that make all the difference. It makes me dream and I wish I could create a little universe full of wonderful creatures and splendid landscapes 😉
So have a look at Johanna Basford’s lovely books and maybe next time you are walking in your garden or in the forest, you will start to see the world differently! A simple hut made of wood would become a secret and poetic hideaway in the trees ❤
Do you know what is the most common fear for people living abroad? No matter the origin, colour, religion… it is always the same obsession! You would think: the language to master? the new culture to adapt? missing your family so much that you can’t breath? I won’t deny that these are part of the concerns too but the most common fear is actually and surprisingly: gaining weight!
When you think about it, it does make sense! Afterall when you move overseas, you have a lot of free time when you arrive, meaning a lot of opportunities to taste local dishes, an enormous curiosity to satisfy and the desire to discover everything about your new culture and food is definitely part of the plan! But all these little culinary experiences have a price and soon before you realise you have gained 1 or 2 size and it can be more if you have abused of comforting food!
I have a little trick in order to avoid this unfortunate experience! I have the perfect weapon that I always have in my wardrobe! Please I hope you are not thinking of Bridget Jones’slim panties! Please… No! My secret weapon is actually a pair of jeans that I used to wear in my early twenties! It has even a name: it is called the “Sienna Miller”! Why this name? because when I bought it, there was a big black and white poster in the shop featuring the beautiful Sienna Miller wearing this exact same jeans! She was absolutely gorgeous ❤ with her beautiful curves sublimated in this mythical denim pants!
Wherever I am going, I always bring my “Sienna Miller jeans” with me! I can’t really wear it anymore because it is 15 years old, very used and full of holes but I can assure you it works better than a scale. Whenever I am in doubt about my figures, I just have to fit the SM jean: if it fits it means I can still enjoy cakes and candies, if it does not then it leads automatically to more walking and less treats! It is as simple as that and so far it has worked for me wherever I lived and despite my love for St Viateur bagels in Canada, my obsession for scones with marmalade and cream in England and my sweet spot for Lamington in Australia!
In conclusion, a scale can lie to you because these are just numbers… it can be water retention, hormonal etc… but the Sienna Miller jean will always be true to you showing no mercy to extra kilos!
Tuesdays rhyme for me with English class and cooking! Actually there is an original free English conversation class at the North Adelaide Community Centre hosted by the talented and hilarious Malcolm. The theme of this class is: World cuisine. People from all continents attend to this joyful English class, there are no homeworks, no grades but only one rule: each participant is invited to share about his culture and his country through cooking. In my opinion it is a very interesting concept and a good way to practise English while learning about other customs and fooding. Malcolm puts everybody at ease, he is a very encouraging teacher and he has a lot of humour so everybody, even beginners, has an opportunity to speak! There are very interesting stories to hear about and it is like traveling the world! So many foreign countries are represented: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Spain, Iran, France, Italy, Croatia, Chili, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela… it is wonderful to be surrounded by all these different accents and good vibes. I have met really amazing friends thanks to this class and it has made a huge difference in my experience here for sure!
Once a month or so, thanks to Malcolm and our amazing coordinator Kellie our English class takes place in the community centre kitchen. We cook all together traditional dishes from our respective countries but also sometimes Australian meal (like Anzac biscuits) and learn about the story behind. Malcolm says that it is a good exercice for us to put our English into context with real life practice: reading recipes in English, understanding the vocabulary, solving problems together, connecting with each other, joining forces… The results is always incredible, so many different ingredients, colours and flavours: the world in a plate! We have a lot of fun as you can see by yourself in the following short video. If you start watching at 1:14, you will see our teacher Malcolm being interviewed about this wonderful class and if you pay attention you will see me as well with my friends at the North Adelaide Community Centre kitchen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip0LqXRDRpg
But the fun does not stop here, because after the cooking we can taste all these lovely dishes and share with the community centre guests. Again it is another opportunity to meet locals, mingle, express our opinions and please our palate with worldwide food. I am glad we have also the opportunity to taste Australian traditional dishes: pavlova, lamington, anzac biscuits… because we don’t have those in our countries and the point is to learn more about Australian culture because this is where our ❤ is at the moment. So come and join us at the North Adelaide Community Centre, you will love cooking and speaking English for sure!
“Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower” – Albert Camus
This is my first Autumn in Australia and also my very first Autumn in March when my family in France is embracing spring time 😉 The weather has changed in Adelaide and it is getting chilly. I am glad I have a fireplace in my living room: it is so cosy! I love to hear the crackling sound and the smell of the wood burning. I enjoy gazing at the joyful flames dancing on the logs, warming slowly the atmosphere. What a lovely setting to curl up comfortably on the sofa under a wool blanket with your favorite book!
Curling up in front of the fireplace
It is also the perfect time of the year to enjoy nice walks in the crispy air. Put your boots and your jeans on and have a peek at all these wonderful colours where the trees enter an enchanting parade. Don’t you think the gold, brown and red leaves are just beautiful? Adelaide Hills is the place to contemplate this magical scenery… if you have the chance like me to go to Stirling, your breath will be literally taken away. This charming village only 20 minutes away from Adelaide CBD is a real gem!
Stirling village and its adorable restaurant in summer time!
It is full of cute houses, shops and gigantic trees celebrating gloriously autumn season at the moment. My Australian friend Ann took me there and it was absolutely delightful. The fresh air was so energizing, so pure… I liked the feeling on my cheeks! We enjoyed a hot beverage in a fancy place called Red Cacao chocolatier and I indulged myself with a cup of chili cocoa, one word: delicious! This is the perfect place for chocolate connoisseurs: they offer a wide range of exquisite high quality chockies (Aussie slang for chocolate, sorry guys I could not help it). Well this is the place to go to spoil yourself!
I also do believe that it is very appropriate in this season to enjoy hot and comforting drinks! You can be creative at home like my friend Nasim (from Iran) and add fruits and Haigh’s chocolates on the side: all Adelaide flavours in a cup of tea!
Nasim’s tea: a poetic celebration of Autumn’s colours!
Chocolates, nice walks, chatting with a good friend, reading and snuggling: this is definitely what I like about Autumn season ❤
“No water, no life. No blue, no green” – Sylvia Earle
Forget about make-up, beauty creams, vitamins, miracle pills, fancy clothes, jewels to make you beautiful… because a girl’s best friend is closer that you think, it is actually: WATER!
Water has many virtues: it helps to digest, to regulate body temperature, to help with weight loss, to feel full of energy, to have a clearer skin, to stay fresh, to prevent headache, to beat colds, to think clearer! With all these benefits it should definitely be part of your beauty routine ❤
We are supposed to drink around 2-3 litres a day… which seems like a lot! But you can make it fun by adding cucumbers, lemons or fruits in your glass of water, to spice up things so it does not get boring! Here is a lovely article with 20 cool recipes and amazing pictures that will make you fall in love with your glass of water! http://www.diyncrafts.com/7075/health/20-delicious-detox-waters-cleanse-body-burn-fat
Water spiced up with mint, orange, lemon and cinnamon!
I personally adore tea so it is another disguised way to hydrate your body and feel splendid! My favorite time being in the afternoon while blogging and enjoying an homemade iced tea or a warm and comforting cup of my favorite blend.
Delicious mint and lemon iced tea at “E for Ethel” cafe
You can also make it trendy and healthy at home! In Adelaide we are lucky to live near Mount Lofty and its natural springs. You can enjoy pure and refreshing water for a really decent price and it is always nice to buy local! It is non polluted, it is natural, high quality and it tastes good! Here is my tip: buy a 10 liter Mount Lofty water pack (easy to find at Coles supermarket), it is convenient, cheaper and environment friendly! Then buy a beautiful bottle: I went for “Voss”, they have really stylish glass bottles but their water is so expensive because it comes from Norway springs! So now what I do, I fill my trendy “Voss” bottle with my “Mount Lofty natural spring water“, I place it in the fridge and I have always fresh and pure water to offer. I must say the bottle looks pretty cool on my table which is always a PLUS to feel good about yourself or when you have guests!
10 litres pack of natural spring waterStylish Voss bottle
And now a funny story: I am going to reveal a little secret about Mount Lofty 10 litres pack that only Australian people know because they were born with it I assume. It seems that foreigners don’t know how to make the water flow from the box… My friend Nasim (from Iran) and I (from France) made exactly the same mistake, turning the plastic button from right to left and the other way around… we turned every part of it but nothing happened, not a single drop of water. One day Nasim’s neighbor (from Oz) paid a visit to her and Nasim asked her if she knew how to use the water pack! Her neighbor smiled and said, “Oh, it is easy, there is a little trick to know” and she showed her! Then it happened the same thing to me and I spotted that Nasim had a Mount Lofty water pack at home too, so I asked her to show me how to use it and she said, “it is easy, there is a little trick”… when thinking of it I feel stupid now haha… don’t turn the plastic bit, it won’t do anything! For god’s sake it is not a French wine barrel with a small pourer to turn on and off! So the technique is to lift the small plastic bit up or down like if you were switching a light on or off and the miracle will happen, you will have your own fountain of water springing in your home ❤ magic!
Have you ever seen a zombie walk? Basically it is a social gathering of people dressed as zombies walking around the city! It is becoming more and more popular and a lot of cities such as London, Montreal etc… are hosting a walking dead procession around Halloween time! I have seen a zombie march when I was living in Montreal and I must say despite the cold it was really entertaining some people were really into their “characters”.
I look very disconnected!
I moved to Australia early September 2014 and when I heard there would be a zombie walk in Adelaide CBD in October, I decided to make it count! This time I would not just watch, I would be one of them: walking crooked, looking disconnected, groaning… But first, I had to find a costume, a character that would express my story… how did I become a zombie, what was I doing last before being bitten? Since I had just moved to Adelaide I did not have much (no accessories or clothes to trash) so I decided to go to a charity shop or like they say here an “Op shop” (opportunity shop)! For less that $10 I found a girly pink top and a dress that made me think of a gardener apron… I decided that it would be perfect since there were some gardening tools in my fully furnished house that I could use to complete my costume! Now I had my story: I was a garden lady taking care of my roses when I got suddenly attacked and bitten by a crazy zombie! Then the trick is about make up, then laminating my costume (using a cheese grinder!) and make it look dirty like I spent weeks wandering in the streets of Adelaide (I scrubbed it on the pavement and in the grass outside)… the result was absolutely perfect!
Hungry and scary zombie!
Then I joined my peers and it was really good fun. Some costumes were unbelievable and very realistic! I could swear some people have been zombies in previous lives… if it does make sense! Thousand of zombies got together to raise funds for Foodbank SA which is a noble cause (you can donate money or non perishable food)! The event is very well organized with policemen closing the roads where the march takes place (East terrace, Rundle street, Pultney street and Pirie street)… it is hilarious to see people faces when you are walking down the streets: some are curious, some are excited and others are totally speechless because they have no idea what is going on, why all this blood and these strange faces… I am still smiling when thinking of this old couple who nearly had a stroke when they saw me 😉
Marie-Antoinette had it coming!
I think it is so cool that Adelaide can compete with other major cities by hosting a really amazing and entertaining zombie walk with thousands of walking dead marching on our streets! When you think it all started a couple of years ago with a few people who were passionate about it and decided they will make it happen no matter what… at the beginning it was a really discrete and small event but as the years go by it is getting more and more famous and important and I think it is wonderful to be part of it!
She stopped the car at the red light. She looked briefly into the rearview mirror and she noticed her eyes were still red from crying. The roses were lying next to her on the front seat. She was wondering who was sending the flowers; probably somebody who wanted to feel good about it! Each damn year on Valentine’s day it was the same old scenario: a beautiful deep red bouquet would be delivered to her work place without a card or a message. In a way it felt good that somebody cared about her, but at the same time it hurt so much because it also reminded her of the passion and love she once had, which had been tragically and irremediably taken away from her.
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This text is one of my assignments from creative writing class. Rather than starting to write from an idea, I was encouraged to start with a word that would act as a trigger for writing. The idea is to explore the sounds and meanings of words, to get new ideas and perspectives. I was asked to write only a paragraph (short story) using the trigger word: RED by sound or by meaning… it was up to me! I must say it was interesting because I never proceeded this way before… generally ideas or images drive my creativity! So it was interesting to start from a simple word as “red” and build a story around it! I am happy with the result because I managed to create a story in just 100 words! What I really enjoyed about this exercice is the fact that at the beginning I had no idea where my story would go… I just knew I would use “valentine’s day”, “roses”, “traffic light”, “passion” because they are deeply associated to the red colour but my story really took life under my pen with the words I was using one line at a time, growing like a deep velvet rose on the heart of my white page filling it with its warm colour!
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden”
Do you have a secret place where you enjoy going to dream and clear your mind? A poetic place where you feel free and inspired?
I know a lovely garden in Adelaide that is an invitation to inspiration. It is as beautiful as it is peaceful with its enchanting trees and flowers. It is a Japanese style garden celebrating religiously the beauty of nature. I like to walk slowly surrounded by the sound of silence on the stepping stones so I can admire every tiny detail. I enjoy gazing at the calm water of the lake and listen to the birds singing happily in the deep blue sky. I love the sound of the chanting waterfall melting poetically into the beautiful landscape. Everything is in harmony with nature and my heart feels at peace here.
The lake: the soul of the garden
I like to kneel in front of the magic stone bowl and feel the fresh water on my hand and my face. It is said that the holy water will purify your spirit and your soul: it is like leaving all my worries behind me and starting from fresh with a humble attitude.
Water bowl (Chozubachi) so visitors may purify themselves
I like to contemplate the sea of sand. It is the perfect spot for contemplation thinking of the immensity of the sea, the waves, the continents. If you close your eyes, you can hear the sea… As Buddha said “With our thoughts we create the world” and it is up to us to make it beautiful!
Sea of sand
I could spend hours in this enchanting garden: dreaming, reading, having a picnic, doing yoga… but suddenly I hear the ‘clack” of the Shishi-Odoshi: a large bamboo tube filling with water until horizontal and then emptying causing one end to hit a rock with a deaf noise. It brings me back to reality: happier, rested and aware of the beauty and power of nature… already time to go but I will be back soon, I promise 😉
One of my first assignments in creative writing class was to write about an object without letting the readers know what the object is until the end of the story. I was also asked to add some dialogue to my text and to keep it up to 300 words. It was a challenging exercice but it was also very interesting. I had fun working on that piece and I thought it could be a nice idea to share my text with you… so try to guess what is my object before the end of my story 😉 and let me know what you thought about it!
With or without you…
His adjusted wide and round eyes were following me. His long and curved arms trying to surround me. I could perceive his soft cold touch on my face as he was bending over my ears.
‘Hey, look at me! Am I that transparent!?’ he whispered.
‘Leave me alone! I don’t like what I see; when I am looking in the mirror I don’t recognize myself anymore. You have turned me into something I don’t like! I don’t want you!’
‘Can’t you see beyond the end of your nose?! We are a perfect fit! Deep inside, you know you need me! I am making a huge difference… without me you are confused and lost and without you I am worth nothing!’
‘I don’t need you! To me you are just an accessory! Go back to your confined place with your black suit and fancy tattoos! I hate you!’
When I entered the cafe, I was so angry I nearly missed a step and bumped into a young man. The waitress asked me what I wanted to order. I spotted the board menu hanging… it could have been Chinese!
The waitress stared at me waiting for my answer… painfully, I realised that I had been lying to myself: I desperately needed it!
I reached the unloved black pair of glasses in my crumpled bag so I could see now: cascade of words, cakes appearing on the counter, intensity of colours, faces around me and the expression of surprise in my fiance’s eyes! He had been standing here, witnessing the whole scene and I had not noticed! Only he could see through me!
He said, ‘Even with your glasses on, I think you still look pretty!’
If you are a Games of Thrones fan, you must be familiar with the following sentence “you know nothing Jon Snow”… well this is the way I feel sometimes about my English. I thought that my universtity English degree, my previous lives in Montreal and London had afforded me to gain a wide knowledge of this beautiful language but it seems it is a never ending journey! But today let’s focus on the positive side only: learning a foreign language is like following the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz whereeach day is an adventure, an opportunity to discover and to learn more!
Actually when I moved to Adelaide I realized that there were many words and expressions (slang) I did not know! Furthermore, it seems that my French accent is SO strong that there is no way I could be mistaken for an Aussie girl… no matter how hard I try, when I open my mouth they instantly know I am French! Sometimes I wonder… why do French people sound so French?! Since I can’t really do anything about it, let’s focus on the former topic: Aussie slang!
Shortly after I moved to Adelaide, I made friend with my neighbour and enjoyed our daily conversations about the city, Australia, wildlife etc… even if sometimes he talked too fast and I could not catch the meaning of everything. One day he told me how popular the Aussie barbies were and that I should try. I thought he was talking about the Barbie plastic dolls (creepy…. why would he tell me that, I am not a kid anymore and what do Aussie Barbie dolls have that French ones don’t haha)… or maybe he was referring to bimbos, blondies (still creepy…why saying I should try?). So I got curious and asked him for more details (afterall maybe I was just lost in translation), I wanted to know what he liked about it… then I heard the word “shrimp” and the conversation went on and I learnt this day that a barbie is a barbecue, not a doll neither a bimbo nore a blondie!
Do you know what is a breakie? First time, I heard this word… I thought it was related to “break something”… do I want a breakie? Is somebody going to break my leg? Is it an Australian custom? Well don’t worry, if you see this expression on a cafe menu… nobody is going to break you anything, it just means: breakfast! In my opinion it is a good word to know here and speaking of it I know the perfect place where to enjoy a delicious Aussie breakie!
One day in English class, one of our teachers William asked us if we have been bothered by the mozzies during the warm and humid weekend. Because of the lesson topic, we knew he was talking about an animal but what kind of beast was that? The word sounded to me like a “mouse” but with a “S” so something like “mouses” but then I thought it can’t be, because the plural is “mice” (congrats these English classes are paying off)! A girl from Japan said that this animal did not exist in her country and William smiled and said he doubted it! Actually mozzies mean mosquitos!
After 6 months living in Australia, I can’t declare I am fluent in Aussie slang yet but I am working on it because I like it here and I really want to fit in! So to prove my love to Australia, I am going to write something that only Australians can understand:
G’day, I started my morning with a lovely breakie and wrote some emails to my relies. Then I was invited by my aussies mates to a seafood barbie. I hope there will not be too many mozzies tonight at the party! No worries! Ta ❤
Hello World! 